Counting down to League Cup 2009...

Noticed that these logos started from 27-May TODAY.

There was no "3 Days More" logo on 29-May edition though... :-)

P/S: Should it be "5 Days More" or "5 More Days"? :-p

Who will be the Last Winless "Away" Side in 2009?

This is the sister thread of Who will be the Last Unbeaten "Home" Side in 2009?,

Home United is now undergoing one of the most bizarre campaign since their league inception, as at 23-May, after being stunned by Balestier's late equalizer in the 1-1 draw at Toa Payoh, their home / away records (incl. JBS games for easy permutation) reads:

P W D L GF - GA Pts GD
Home: 6 4 2 0 14 - 2 14 (+12)
Away: 6 0 2 5 2 - 8 2 (-6)

What a whopping 13-point difference!! It is only 4 points away from the highest possible range. This is only "bettered" by Albirex:

P W D L GF - GA Pts GD
Home: 7 4 2 1 12 - 6 14 (+6)
Away: 6 0 0 6 2 - 16 0 (-14)

Home's woeful away record so far is also their worst since joining the league, even the wooden spoon side of 1997 managed to record their 1st away win in the 4th attempt.

P W D L GF - GA Pts GD
9.Y.Lions 7 0 3 4 2 - 7 3 (-5)
10.Balestier 6 0 3 3 6 - 13 3 (-7)
11.Home Utd 6 0 2 5 2 - 8 2 (-6)
12.Albirex 6 0 0 6 2 - 16 0 (-14)

Will they or Albirex be the last team to win away this season?
Or will that be the other 2 winless teams? Let's vote!!

Sengkang overtaken Sembawang Rangers!!

Yes, I'm talking about the S.League all-time table here (which can be found at the bottom of the S.League-TriVia blog), :-p

After Sengkang's hard-earned 1-0 win over Albirex on 22-May, they finally overtaken Sembawang Rangers into 12th-place with their all-time record now reads:

# Teams-- Ssn P-- W---D--L-- F---A-- Pts GD--
12 Sengkang 10 272 50-59-163 285-587 217 -302
13 Sembawang 7 207 53-52-102 256-405 216 -149

Congrats ya... :-)

Bravo Woodlands!!

Despite their lowly position in the league this season, on 21-May Woodlands managed what Sengkang, SAFFC & Gombak couldn't do so far: by "Denying Brunei DPMM the chance to go top of the table" with a stunning 2-1 win!

(At least that the headline used by LianHe ZaoBao: "兀兰阻止文莱登榜首", :-)


With this win, Woodlands also moved to within a point of the half-thousand milestone in the all-time table, their record now reads:

# Teams---- Ssn P-- W---D--L-- F---A-- Pts GD
05 Woodlands 14 370 137-90-143 604-609 499 -5

Below are some pictures taken during the match (sorry for the poor quality of camera phone):

Notice Board prior to Kick-off

DPMM Attacking...

Simunic Firing Commands!!

DPMM Supporters

Not too bad a crowd...

Subs Players Warming-up (1)

Subs Players Warming-up (2)

When will DPMM finally win by more than a goal?

DPMM has chalked-up their 7th one-goal-win in as many victories so far (it would be 8 if Singapore Cup is included), with a another 1-0 win over Young Lions (out of an own goal some more) on 16-May.

This just make us wonder, when will they start winning by more than 1 goal in the league? Or is it not going to happen at all this season?

Similar to the poll "When will SAFFC draw their 1st league match in 2009?", let's vote on this too!!

DPMM's 7 league wins so far:
4 Mar 2009 DPMM FC 2 : 1 Super Reds
8 Mar 2009 DPMM FC 2 : 1 Woodlands
19 Mar 2009 Balestier 0 : 1 DPMM FC
24 Mar 2009 DPMM FC 1 : 0 Sengkang
10 Apr 2009 DPMM FC 2 : 1 Gombak
26 Apr 2009 DPMM FC 2 : 1 SAFFC
16 May 2009 DPMM FC 1 : 0 Young Lions

When will SAFFC draw their 1st league match in 2009?

This question came to me as I tried to do a Simple Projection on how teams will finish the 2009 season base on their up-to-date W-D-L records so far.

However, I had to hold myself back for now as SAFFC is still without a draw so far (8-0-3 as at 13-May), which means simple projection will show it finish the season draw-less, which is quite unlikely, given that only 2 out of 151 teams between 1996 & 2008 have gone through a season without a Win, Draw or Loss:
1996 Series 2: SAFFC 9-5-0
1997: Woodlands 11-0-5

That's just 1.32% in 13 seasons. If 2009 is included (where 11 other teams had already cleared off the zeroes), the odds would be just 2/162 = 1.23%!

So, I have been quietly waiting for SAFFC to clear THAT ONE LAST ZERO in the league table. When will that happen? Let's vote!!

---

A recap on when were the LAST ZEROES ELIMINATED in the past seasons:

1996 S-1: 14th round out of 14, Geylang were 9-0-4 before 1st draw
1996 S-2: N/A, SAFFC went 9-5-0 all season
1997: N/A, Woodlands went 11-0-5 all season
1998: 15/20, Sengkang 0-3-11 before 1st win
1999: 22/22, Home 15-6-0
2000: 13/22, Geylang 8-0-4
2001: 12/33, Tampines 3-0-8
2002: 20/33, Clementi 5-0-14
2003: 13/33, Tjg. Pagar 2-0-10
2004: 14/27, Tjg. Pagar 0-1-12
2005: 18/27, Paya Lebar 0-1-16
2006: 13/30, Young Lions 10-2-0
2007: 16/33, Tampines 12-0-3
2008: 13/33, Sengkang 0-5-7
2009: ??/33, SAFFC ??-??-??, 

Who will be the Last Unbeaten "Home" Side in 2009?

Now that all teams have been beaten at least once in 2009, there's still another unbeaten run to watch for, that is, which side will be the last to lose at home this season? 
(excluding neutral games at JBS, though it have to be counted for Young Lions, of course, )

As at May-13 (prior to Home-Tampines game), the remaining unbeaten home sides are:

P W D L GF - GA Pts GD
1. Gombak 6 5 1 0 11 - 2 16 (+9) @ J.West
2. Home 4 4 0 0 12 - 0 12 (+12) @ Clementi
3. BruneiDPMM 4 4 0 0 7 - 3 12 (+4) @ SHBS
4. Tampines 4 3 1 0 5 - 0 10 (+5) @ Tampines
8. Super Reds 4 2 2 0 4 - 2 8 (+2) @ Yishun

Let's vote who will be the last team to stand tall at home!! SAFFC managed to remain unbeaten at CCK throughout 2006 - 2008, some team may just do that this season!!

N/B: Though no sides are unbeaten away now, Gombak is technically still unbeaten in any opponents' home stadium. Their only "away" loss this season came against DPMM on 10-Apr @ JBS, 

S.League Conferences

Just a flash of thoughts that came to my mind:

Should the S.League, for whatever reasons, decides to adopt the USA-like conference system, how will the current teams be partitioned into, say, Eastern & Western Conferences?

2009 Line-up:

Western Conference:
Albirex - Jurong East - No brainer
Gombak - Jurong West - No brainer
Home United - Clementi - West for now, ::
SAFFC - Choa Chu Kang - No brainer
Super Reds - Yishun - Classify as West since Sembawang used to have a Northern Derby with Woodlands
Woodlands - Woodlands - North-West is West, ::

Eastern Conference:
Balestier - Toa Payoh - Classify as East since its closer to other Eastern Teams, notably Sengkang & Young Lions.
DPMM - SHB National - East of Singapore, any more questions? 
Geylang - Bedok - No brainer
Sengkang - Hougang - North-East is East, ::
Tampines - Tampines - No brainer
Young Lions - Jalan Besar - "Middle"-East is East, 

Make sense? 

2008 Line-up:

Western Conference:
Albirex - Jurong East - No brainer
Dalian - Queenstown - No brainer

Gombak - Jurong West - No brainer
SAFFC - Choa Chu Kang - No brainer
Super Reds - Yishun - Classify as West since
Sembawang used to have a Northern Derby with Woodlands
Woodlands - Woodlands - North-West is West, 

Eastern Conference:
Balestier - Toa Payoh - Classify as East since its closer to other Eastern Teams, notably Sengkang & Young Lions.
Home United - Bishan - Classify as East since its closer to other Eastern Teams, notably Balestier & Sengkang.
Geylang - Bedok - No brainer
Sengkang - Hougang - North-East is East, 
Tampines - Tampines - No brainer

Young Lions - Jalan Besar - "Middle"-East is East, 

Make sense too? The list can go on for prior seasons of the league...

早报体育:TTM沙没沙空淘汰超红?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonny  TTM Samut Sakhon FC - Super Reds FC 4-2 Match Attendance1,054 Match details: sleague Portal : Match Details

早报体育
TTM沙没沙空淘汰超红
（2009-05-07）

TTM's Chinese translation is really funny, it sounds like:
"山猫失控" (wild cat lost control), 
"沙漠时空" (time in desert), 
"色即是空" (color is nothing) or 
"实在没空" (really not free)...